That Town's Name Is What? The World's Strangest Names for Cities

From long (58 letters) to short (2 letters) to just plain weird, the world is a treasure trove of strangely-named places. Here are nine of our favorites and the origins behind the name.

From long (58 letters) to short (2 letters) to just plain weird, the world is a treasure trove of strangely named places:

Clocking in at 58 letters, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch seems excessive for a city name, but when translated this Welsh town's name actually means "St. Marys Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near to the Rapid Whirlpool of Llantysilio of the Red Cave." Because that's easier to say.

Boring, a small town outside of Portland, Oregon, got its name from William H. Boring, an early settler. Now, the town choses to make light of its unique name and celebrates August 9 as Boring & Dull Day. Perhaps they should ask Dull, Scotland, and Bland, Australia to join in on the festivities?

Fifty-six letters shorter than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Ii, in Finland, gets its name from the Sami word iddja or ijje, meaning "night."

No Name, Colorado, earned its moniker shortly after the construction of Interstate 70, when a Department of Transportation official set out to improve signage along the route. The region surrounding Exit 119 had "no name" at the time. High-level state officials have attempted to change the name, but locals have insisted it stay.

Slaughterville, Oklahoma, is named after one of the town's founders, James Slaughter, but not everyone is okay with the historical name. In 2004, PETA offered Slaughterville $20,000 to change its name to "Veggieville." The town declined.

Not much is known about the origins of the English village Pity Me, but the Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names makes an educated guess, calling it "a whimsical name bestowed in the 19th century on a place considered desolate, exposed or difficult to cultivate."

The tiny Scottish hamlet of Lost has suffered such great theft of street signs that the Aberdeenshire Council tried to change the name to Lost Farm. However, the name, which comes from the Gaelic word for "inn," stuck.

It might be pronounced "seely", but Silly Department in Burkina Faso still sounds like a good place to ship off anyone with a good sense of humor.

Seventeen Seventy, Queensland, Australia, is one of just a handful of places with a number for a name (Fifty-Six, Arkansas, is another). The village was built on the site of Captain James Cook's 1770 landing.